"It’s all good then. Since you have already called a council meeting, I think this time, I myself have to call one. Sigh. Wait for a week. After that, I will call one, and then we can send Naruto to Shisui’s house," Hiruzen said.
"Thank you, Lord Third," Fugaku said.
"There is nothing to be thankful for. It’s actually you who are doing me a favor. I had neglected my duty as his guardian for too long. I should have arranged something like this from the beginning," Hiruzen said.
"It is still not too late, Lord Third. He is still 4 years old and can have a somewhat decent childhood even if it starts now," Fugaku said. The reason he said "decent" and not "good" was because the children in this world don’t have much time to live their childhood.
At most, at the age of 13, they will be released from the academy and will be eligible to go to war if there is one. Since Naruto has already lived 4 years of his limited childhood in misery and all the people already hate him due to Danzo’s schemes, giving him the best childhood was out of the question.
But something like a decent childhood, where he doesn’t have to deal with the constant anger and disgust of people around him and has someone to care for him, will not be difficult.
After that, Hiruzen and Fugaku discussed some more details regarding the clan and other matters. After an hour, Fugaku went back to his clan.
‘Even though things are a little turbulent at the moment, once everything stabilizes, Konoha will regain some of its lost strength,’ Hiruzen thought. The reason behind these thoughts was the number of Root ninja he had reclaimed from Danzo. According to what Danzo had reported, he only had 400 ninja under him, which was by no means a small amount; he alone rivaled a whole mid-sized clan.
But the actual number was even more shocking. Danzo had more than 600 ninjas under him. Unfortunately, many of them were so loyal to him that they had to be neutralized; otherwise, they may have done something drastic when they found out what had actually happened to Danzo.
So the number of new ninja admitted into Anbu was only 550, but among them, 42 were Jonin, which is a huge bonus. Now it was almost like a clan like the Aburame or Inuzuka was added to Konoha.
They have a similar number of Jonin, while clans like the Hyuga and Uchiha have more than twice that amount, mainly because of their respective kekkei genkai.
So once Hiruzen safely makes them believe in the "Will of Fire" and turns them into loyal ninja of Konoha, Konoha won’t have to be under so much pressure anymore or in fear of war.
Like just one year before when the Hyuga affair happened, it will forever remain a stain on Konoha’s reputation, having had to sacrifice an elite Jonin to an absurd claim.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
When a Kumogakure ninja who came to Konoha for a peace treaty tried to kidnap the princess of the Hyuga clan but died trying, Kumogakure demanded the head of Hiashi Hyuga. If not for his brother’s sacrifice, war would have been the only option for Konoha. But all the members of the Hyuga clan, along with others, still felt the shame when that happened. For everyone who knew about this, it was a shame they would never forget.
If not for the weakened state of Konoha, Hiruzen would have never agreed to such a request. Even though Konoha is still not at full strength, things are looking better, and fighting someone like Kumogakure would not be a problem anymore.
But it is not so simple being the strongest village and having the most fertile land for yourself. When war between Kumogakure and Konoha starts, others will also join Kumogakure to get a piece of Konoha. That’s why Konoha is still not in a position to act as they want; they have to lay low and build their strength.
‘Luckily, things are looking good,’ Hiruzen thought, looking at the reports in front of him. In one of the reports was the name of a potential super talented ninja in Root like:
Yamato - ability: Wood Release (only a few people, including Hiruzen, Shikaku, and by default Inoichi, knew about him)
Kai - Ink Jutsu, talent for fuinjutsu S-rank
Shin - talented in Vacuum Release and Lightning Release; chance of reaching S-rank: 30%
Temporary member:
Torune Aburame - genius of the clan, danger in close range - S-rank
Kabuto Yakushi - genius in Medical Jutsu, talent S-rank
Seeing this a single thought was in Hiruzen’s mind ‘Is S Rank This common?’
These were the files present in front of Hiruzen. All of them had the talent to become Kage-level ninjas. If Konoha can get even two of them to reach S-rank in 10 years, they won’t have to fear war at all.
With Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Fugaku, Shisui, Kakashi, and Guy all being Kage or close to Kage rank, if two more people join this group, Konoha will have nine S-rank ninjas. Even after sending two S-rank for each village, they can still leave one in Konoha for any emergency.
"How did I forget that boy?" Hiruzen mused, thinking about a boy whose name was mentioned many times in his recent meetings.
‘Three-tomoe Sharingan, specialist level medical jutsu, beginner level fuinjutsu, Jonin level Kenjutsu as well as genjutsu, and Chunin level ninjutsu and taijutsu—all this at the age of 9. If anyone had the best chance of becoming S-rank in the future, it would be him,’ Hiruzen thought.
(A.N.: I don’t think I have to mention who the person Hiruzen is thinking about, right? 😉)
Even though there were many other people who had similar or even higher-level talent than Kaida, like Itachi, Hiruzen was more biased toward Kaida.
Why? Well, when Shisui used Kotoamatsukami on Hiruzen to make him hate Danzo five times the original amount, he also did one more thing at Kaida’s request.
Yes, he increased Hiruzen’s mental image of Kaida’s talent and value by five times, and since Hiruzen himself wanted to nurture talented ninjas like Kaida, the effects were monumental.
This resulted in Hiruzen giving Kaida most of his focus, but whether it was a good thing or bad will be for the future to decide.
Hiruzen started reading various reports in front of him, as these were the people he had to pay close attention to, along with the "orphans" with kekkei genkai Danzo had "saved" from other villages.
…
Fugaku went back to his office completely satisfied with the result of the meeting, but then he remembered how he had asked Kaida for the spar between him and Itachi.
The reason was he wanted to see the progress Kaida had made by now. Even though he had heard many things about him, he had not seen his strength level yet, while he knew about his son perfectly.
Seeing them fight each other, Fugaku could gauge Kaida’s strength as well. If by any chance everything he had heard about Kaida was true, then the Uchiha would not only have him and Shisui as its strength, but even Itachi and Kaida would join the queue.
‘Maybe our Uchiha clan will finally regain our old strength,’ Fugaku thought. The time when Madara and Izuna were alive was when the Uchiha were most powerful.
Even though they were not really rich at that time, no one other than the Senju could handle their strength then.
(A.N.: I am almost certain that the Uchiha were poor during the Warring States Era when this whole village thing was not there, as in the anime, Senju like Hashirama, Tobirama, and others normally wore armor and expensive clothes different for different occasions.
While the Uchiha rarely had any armor, only Izuna Uchiha wore anything close to armour. They even had similar clothes for every occasion. So all the wealth the Uchiha had came after this collaboration between the Senju and Uchiha and the village formation. Just my thoughts, and I am open to any suggestions you guys have ^~^.)